Interior Trends 2020 and Beyond...

It’s the start of a brand new year and decade and I’m loving reading everyones round ups about which interiors trends have dominated the previous decade and which trends are predicted to change the interiors landscape in the 2020s.

I’m not actually a fan of the word ‘trend’ though (sorry!) and if you’ve followed me for a while then you might know that for the last three years Lisa Dawson and myself have run a whole anti - trend workshop called No Rules Interior Cool.

What we think really matters in interiors is finding your own style - your core style. Your core style comprises of the things that you’ve always loved and always come back to. You might not be entirely aware of your core style and you might have a notion that if you steer away from colour trends or prescribed room sets then you are somehow bound to get it wrong and commit ‘design crimes’.

This is absolutely not the case though. I strongly believe that if you’re prepared to commit a bit of time to thinking about what kind of interior makes you tick, and has always made you tick, then you’re well on your way to working out your core style and living in a home that allows you to feel and be absolutely yourself.

This is a whole blog topic in itself but, briefly, there are a few things you can do to help you work out your core interior style. The main one is to think about how you want to feel at home. Are you aware of how your current interior makes you feel? What elements bring you joy and what elements niggle you and why? What colours have you been drawn to all your life and why? Gradually you need to get rid of the things that make you feel ‘meh’ in your home and replace them with things that make your heart sing. Sounds simplistic, but it’s the only way. More on this subject in a future blog post or read this one here by Lisa Dawson. 

Back to trends though. Here are the trends that, in my humble opinion, will continue to grow in 2020 and that will become design staples and a way of life rather than a trend.

1. Biophilic Design
Back in a May I went to a talk by Oliver Heath about biophilic design at the Conservatory Archives and I’ve been absolutely fascinated with it ever since. Biophilic design is all about the massive improvement in well being experienced when your home is connected, both directly and indirectly, with the natural world’ On a small, achievable scale think about more houseplants and on a larger scale think about nature at every design phase of a building or community. The position of the building for optimum light, the types of materials used in construction of the building and the positioning and size of the windows for maximising the view of the natural world from within are all examples of biophilic design. It’s about bringing the outside inside at every opportunity and decision point and I’m absolutely sure it’s going to be massive this decade. See this article for more info and follow Oliver Heath.

Biophilic design is the veganism of the interiors world.

2. Green and Earthy Colours
Following on from biophilic design, I think it’s perfectly logical that colours inspired by the natural world will dominate our walls in 2020 and beyond. A pale green, ‘Tranquil Dawn’, is Dulux Colour of Year 2020 and many respected interiors writers such as Melanie Lissack are calling green, in all it’s shades, as their colour trend prediction for 2020.
I also think that the popularity of earthy colours such as terracotta and saffron will grow as they are natural accents to green and also inspired heavily by the botanical world.

Dulux Tranquil Dawn

Source: Design Seeds

This is one trend though, as much as I admire it, that I won’t be adopting. I know my ‘core style'‘ and green walls are not part of it. Instead I will stick to my core style of neutral backdrops and continue to incorporate this trend as actual green plants and terracotta pots in my home.

3. Distressed walls
I love a distressed wall and was absolutely all over the rag rolling, sponging, stippling and colour washing trend in the 90s! Distressed walls are back for the 20s but I think this time it’s all a much more natural and subtle look. Think bare plaster walls, traditional plaster finishes such as Tadelakt and beautiful, natural paints such as limewash. Limewash and clay paints go hand in hand with the two trends discussed above, are environmentally friendly and create beautiful depth and character in any room. Check out Autentico paints for a wide range of natural paints that will create a subtle and beautiful backdrop.

Paris White Volterra is my favourite Autentico product so far.

4. Upcycling
Upcycling of furniture has moved on from slapping a coat of chalk paint onto a chest of drawers just because you can’t afford anything else. The recent sea change in attitudes to recycling and more conscious shopping has seen the upcycling of a well made piece of furniture becoming a considered choice. There are several furniture artists on Instagram who have totally raised the bar in what we can expect from a piece of upcycled furniture, many of them championed by House of Upcycling and I can only see this movement growing. Would you rather buy a unique, custom painted, well made vintage wardrobe or a mass produced new piece for the a similar price? I know what I’d choose.

Beautifully sympathetic paint upcycle of a dark brown bureau by Maisies House

Wardrobe upcycle by Patience and Gough using Annie Sloan chalk paint.

5. Juxtaposition of old and ultra modern. 
Mixing old and new was an interiors watch word of the last decade and this is going nowhere. This area is also where you can let your core style go wild. Do you like vintage art as well as modern? It’s absolutely fine to mix them on your gallery wall., as long as you love them both. As we buy into natural and sustainable materials, recycled furniture, more greenery and the rustic textures that come with this interiors movement then we’re going to need a pop of modern design to lift the whole look.. The French already do this so well and I for one am buying into this look 100 percent for this decade.   

George Nelson Bubble lamp juxtaposed with a distressed wall brings out the best in both.

Whatever your interior style, it’s great to look to trends to refresh our thinking or put a different slant on a look we already love. The days of fast interiors are over though, I think, and the 2020s will all be about knowing who you are, how you want to feel and choosing a look that has soul and sustainability at it’s heart.

My Interiors and Instagram Journey

I’m a tiny bit late with an end of year review but I thought I’d do some sort of review anyway! I actually meant to do one at the end of November to mark three years since going freelance and the launch of my new website but a) I but didn’t have the time (that’s freelance for you!) and b) my website wasn’t ready (and it still isn’t!) but to hell with it. I need to write this stuff down before I forget.

Firstly though, a caveat and then a bit of background. I’m not writing this blog post to ‘show off’ about anything I’ve ‘achieved’ over the last few years. I want to share as honestly as I can the journey I’ve been on (sorry! I know that sounds cringe!) in the hope that it might encourage other people who are thinking of making a change. #sorryifisoundlikeaknob!

My background is in project management and I was in my old job as a project planner for twenty five years (I KNOW! - a lifetime) before I made the break into freelance interior design. I did a Business apprenticeship, studying Business at college in the evenings, and bought my first house on my own at 22. I gutted it and did it up from top to bottom (with the help of my dad) and I worked (and socialised!) hard for ten years, paying all the bills and mortgage on my own. At this point I would love to post a picture of that house on this blog but I don’t have a single one! This was long before the days of camera phones!.

I sold that house when I met Rob and we bought the house that we still live in now. I then went part time for fifteen years whilst I had my three children and we’ve done the house up and extended it in that time.

Immy aged 2. Extension in progress, I was 9 months pregnant and the builders had just done a runner. True story.

During this time too I found that as long as I had a creative outlet I could cope with the rigours of being a working mum. As a lifelong interiors enthusiast (I constantly re- decorated and restyled my own bedroom as a child!) I studied Interior Decor in the evenings at City and Guilds level for two years. I then studied for an Art History degree with the OU (but never finished it, sadly).

As the children got older I began to have a little more time to explore my long suppressed creative side. One of the things I did was buy a vintage caravan and do it up inside and outside. Everyone thought I was mad, and they were right!

Alice the caravan. Hope Cove. Summer 2014.

I also launched an online shop called Huddle that sold new and vintage homeware that you could use both indoors and outdoors and I used the caravan as a pop up shop for it, popping up at street fairs and festivals.

It was the most fun ever but only lasted a couple of years because, firstly, I found that, once you’d paid your pitch fee, profit was minimal at organised outdoor events and, secondly, Rob absolutely hated that caravan with a passion!

Street Fair trading. That’s Flora from @violetnandpercy there but I didn’t even know her then - it’s a photobomb!

But my love of interiors and styling had been well and truly stoked and I realised anyway that I found styling the caravan at events much more enjoyable than actually selling things. It gave me the confidence to do more and more event styling and interior styling for friends (for free, at first) and to do more interiors projects at home.

My approach to interiors has always been the same - to buy the hero piece that you absolutely love - new or vintage - and decorate around it with new and vintage finds. Don’t copy anyone else’s style and don’t go out and buy a brand new room set. Upcycle, recycle and buy things that work hard for you and do more than one job. Work out what makes your heart sing and put your time and money into that. Do not let anything into your home that you’re ‘meh’ about and always, always scour eBay, your mum’s house, charity shops and skips before buying new.

At that same time, make the most of what your home is already offering you. Make the most of the light if you have big windows, strip the floors back if you have floorboards. Do not add anything until you understand the bones of the house, the scale and the light and how you will actually use the house as a family. Ignore trends, find your own style and create a home that you can truly be your authentic self in! (More about this in my next blog post).

Anyway, I began posting these opinions and pictures on Instagram almost exactly four years ago and for the first time ever found myself in a world where I was surrounded by other interiors enthusiasts. And they were so kind and supportive. I couldn’t believe that I could post a picture of an interior and get so much positive feedback on it. It was an absolute revelation and a game changer for me.

The first time a pic of mine went viral!

I met Lisa Dawson shortly after that at an interiors workshop. We’d previously bonded playing along with a hashtag called #mystylephotochallenge and quickly realised that we were at a similar life stage with growing children and that we were both interiors obsessed.

Lisa Dawson and I in Paris as part of a Nespresso campaign.

We decided to start our own interiors hashtag #myhomevibe and run weekly competitions to encourage people to use the hashtag. We’d seen our fellow U.S interiors enthusiasts run them and greatly admired them. We also saw from playing #mystylephotochallenge that hashtags created supportive communities and that the more inclusive the hashtag was, the more fun it was. I can honestly say that I’ve made many genuine friendships and business connections from engaging on interiors hashtags.

We also made friends with the owners of small creative businesses during our first few months of posting on Instagram and bought things from them. We found that when we posted pictures on Instagram containing the things that we’d bought, the small business then reported a big influx of orders. Not long afterwards Marks and Spencer’s offered to pay me ‘as an influencer’ to style some of their new season picnic ware. I didn’t even know what an influencer was at that point but I knew that I was loving these opportunities and that this could be the start of something amazing!

Nine months after first posting on Instagram I decided to take a years sabbatical from my job. I was very lucky that my employers offered this to anyone with long service and also very lucky that my husband was prepared for us to take the financial hit of me potentially not earning for a year. But I knew I HAD to take this opportunity to pursue a career in interiors now, while the opportunity was there, and at the end of November 2016 I left my job of twenty five years. I had the princely total of 16,000 Instagram followers, (I was SO naive!) and leapt into the unknown as a freelance interior stylist.

At this time too Lisa and I launched our own interiors workshops. Instagram and #myhomevibe had opened up a whole world to us we hadn’t known before - democratised interiors and people like us who loved interiors and wanted to embrace and celebrate that joy of knowing and owning their own interior style. I was totally up for this as I knew I could talk about and write about interiors FOREVER, however, I was absolutely terrified of public speaking and up until then had managed to avoid it all of my working life.

Luckily for me, Lisa loaned me her metaphorical ‘balls’ and we wrote ‘Styling your Home - No Rules Interior Cool’ and launched it in January 2017. The workshop was all about working out your own interior style - your ‘core’ style, how to implement it, where to source it, how to ‘shop your home’ and how to share it all on Instagram.

I was absolutely terrified about the whole thing. Putting myself ‘out there’ was very new to me and writing a course and selling tickets for it was such a massive step outside my comfort zone. What if no-one wanted to come and we made absolute fools of ourselves? I’d already left my job and the security that comes with that. I can’t even begin to describe to you the levels of anxiety I experienced at that time!

Our first workshop. January 2017.

We ran our first workshop in January 2017 and, guess what, it sold out! I didn’t sleep a single wink the night before (no exaggeration!) but we did it and the feedback was great. I found that talking publicly was actually super easy if you’re talking about something that you absolutely love and believe in to a room full of likeminded people.

So here I am, three years later. I’ve never looked back and spent that first year working 24/7 and saying YES to absolutely every interiors related opportunity going. Some of the stuff I did in that first year was an absolute disaster and some of it was amazing but what I learnt was that every experience, good or bad, taught me so much and lead me to something else. I have three strands to my career now and it’s evolving all the time. 1) Designing interiors and sourcing furniture for homes and businesses. 2) Creating and writing styled and photographed interiors content for brands, large and small. 3) Doing talks and workshops about interiors and Instagram at all sorts of events. 

I’ve managed to grow my own ‘balls’ now ( thanks for lending me yours when I needed them Lisa! ) and I’ve gradually learned to live the life of a freelancer - not at all easy when you’re pretty much institutionalised from working at the same place for 25 years. I’ve learnt so much about my strengths (I never knew I had some thimgs in me!) and about my limitations (man, I’m the worst procrastinator plus there really are some things you only need to try once!)

Mostly though I’ve learnt that working hard and taking risks is the only way to succeed and you can only claim any kind of success if you’re actually being your authentic self. If you’re not quite sure who you are or what your strengths are then just take the leap anyway as, in my experience, every step, good or bad, will get you there. There’s no such thing as failure, they are just learning opportunities. And what’s the worst that can happen? You mess it up and get egg all over your face? So what? It’s painful but it’s actually one of the best ever lessons in life!

Who knows what 2020 will bring? Instagram is not so much the community focussed place it once was (it’s too big - it’s gone from 400 million to over 1 billion users since I started on there) and things are evolving and changing so quickly. For the moment though it’s still the best place to meet, engage, collaborate, inspire and celebrate with other creatives and I know that I will continue to immerse myself in its world of interiors, connect and share for as long as it feels right.

White Brasserie - The Kings Arms

Whatever you might think about social media, especially Instagram, you cannot fault it as a very effective way of connecting you with people you always should have known, but probably would have never met otherwise. In the four years that I’ve been posting regularly on Instagram, I have met and collaborated with many fellow interior obsessives - so many more than I would have done if I’d come across them the old fashioned way. There’s no doubt that engaging authentically on social media gets you talking to the right people, your ‘tribe’, at lightning speed.

One of the people that I connected with a couple of years ago was Inge Watrobski. We chatted about our shared obsession for design and styling (and dogs!) for quite a while before I knew that she was Head of Design for Raymond Blanc’s Brasserie Blanc and White Brasserie companies. When, a few months after that, she mentioned that White Brasserie were planning on taking over The Kings Arms, my local pub in Prestbury, talk of a design collaboration was a natural step.

Dating from the 14th century, The Kings Arms was once a much loved pub but it had declined in recent years and had been entirely closed for a year. As a local person, it’s been a shame to see this landmark standing sad and empty and I was delighted to be involved with it’s rejuvenation.

Inge asked me to take the layout plans for the patio and come up with something different from the norm. The patio area was a large, already photogenic, space at the front of the pub and it was crying out to be turned into an appealing outside dining and drinking space.

Inge had already designed an outside space at The Oaks in Highcliffe, Dorset that included beach hut dining pods in the design,

Beach Huts at The Oaks, Highcliffe.

We took this idea and decided to convert it into one that would work away from the beach and in a countryside setting such as Prestbury. Prestbury is in the heart of the beautiful Cotswolds, famous for it’s rolling hills, beautiful stone built villages, historical towns and stately homes and gardens, so a garden theme was obvious. The same sheds that were styled as beach huts at The Oaks would be styled as garden shed dining pods at the Kings Arms - complete with heating and lighting.

I chose Little Greene’s Aquamarine colour palette for the sheds and the rest of the outdoor space as it is a colour that Little Greene developed in collaboration with The National Trust. It’s very sympathetic to the colours of the Cotswolds - the golden stone and the flora and fauna.

We used National Trust gardens, such as nearby Hidcote, as the main source of inspiration for the patio planting. We chose Hidcote lavender, white roses, bay and dogwood as the cornerstone of the English Country Garden planting scheme. An evergreen jasmine clambers over the pergola and beautiful purple wisteria will join it in May alongside the spring and summer bulbs that are already planted ready. We’ve used huge old terracotta planters, reclaimed zinc containers and scaffold board planters which also add to the English Country Garden feel.

Raymond Blanc himself is, of course, famously french so we added a few elegant and quirky french twists into the garden design such as chandeliers hanging from the pergola and beautiful old mirrors hung on the outside walls.

Inge has then taken the outdoors indoors with an elegant garden dining room, a shed-like snug and a stables themed dining room, before seguing us into library themed, parlour themed and and traditional pub rooms. Botanical and garden motifs appear throughout the pub as a gentle reminder of the local area. All the areas of the pub have been designed to welcome all - traditional pub goers, children, dogs, racegoers, those seeking coffee and cake, walkers and foodies, to name but a few.

It’s been an absolute pleasure and a joy to collaborate with Inge, White Brasserie and The Kings Arms on this project. Raymond Blanc has incredible values that permeate throughout both his restaurant and pub brands - quality, seasonal, organic food cooked with love, for all. I really think that these values, together with the care that has been taken in restoring the pub, will put the heart back into this much loved centre of the community and be an enormous boost for Prestbury and the surrounding area.

Living Room Goals with DFS

Did you know that this year DFS is  celebrating 50 years of furniture making and that many of their sofas are hand made in the UK? I didn’t either! I also didn’t know that DFS offers a 15-year guarantee on their sofa frames and springs OR that they have the BSI Kitemark for upholstered furniture.  

What I did know, however, is that DFS often collaborate with cool brands such as Joules, House Beautiful and French Connection to create affordable designer sofas. French Connection’s exclusive range at DFS, in particular, is one of my favourite interior brands. 

DFS French Connection Sofa

So, when DFS asked me, as part of their 50-year celebrations, to create a room set for their Living Room Goals Winter Look Book I said yes please. I jumped for joy when they said that the Look Book was being photographed by Debi Treloar - basically my interior photography idol! 

First of all, I had to select the DFS sofa I wanted to create a look for and I chose the Enchanted sofa and armchair in Blush Pink Sensual Velvet which has just launched and is now available on the DFS website and in store - here! 

Enchanted Four Seater Sofa and armchair.

I chose the Enchanted for its elegant design with its nod to Art Deco. It looks glamorous, without being too fussy and clean lined without being austere. I also liked the slim legs and slim arms which make the sofa appear daintier than it actually is. A sofa on legs always creates the illusion of space as you can see underneath it. And it’s easier to get the hoover underneath it obviously! 

You can see me discussing the look in more detail in this video below

 https://we.tl/t-AnlMQEgXeg

I chose velvet because it very much suits the design and also because velvet is no longer just for luxury interiors, it’s for everyday use too. Velvet adds glamour, texture and comfort to daily living and is so cosy, especially in Winter. And, in my opinion, pink is not such a feminine colour any more. It’s a very useful neutral colour and goes brilliantly in many colour schemes - the ever popular whites and neutrals, the still popular greys and the upcoming trends for pastel greens, baby blues and lilacs. 

The new trend for pastel greens - Dulux Tranquil Dawn Sofa at DFS

I chose to work the Enchanted sofa into a rustic French setting mostly because I was on holiday in France at the time! I also love, love, love the French way of juxtaposing luxury materials with more rustic textures. Think velvet paired with slubby linen, silk with raw wood or marble with rough stone. I’m particularly loving the trend for distressed walls at the moment (which you see all over France) and velvet looks amazing against it - again the juxtaposition brings out the best in both materials. 

Slubby linen and velvet - a match made in heaven.

I accessorised the Enchanted sofa and armchair with foraged foliage from the countryside and some old frames and books from a vintage shop. I strongly believe that once you’ve invested in a sofa then it should last a long time and you shouldn’t have to spend a lot of money to ring the seasonal or trend changes. Bringing in materials such as grasses, dried flowers and logs from the garden add loads of texture and interest. And choosing other accessories from vintage or charity shops means you can add character and personality to a room without breaking the bank. And with sustainability in mind, making balanced choices on what you spend your money on is more and more important. 

Old books and frames and foraged foliage add character and texture.

Talking of sustainability, I also didn’t know that for every DFS sofa bought, the customer can opt for DFS to take away their old sofa to be sold in a British Heart Foundation charity shop. Over £20 million has been raised for the BHF from this initiative already. 

 I really enjoyed working with DFS to create this room set for their Living Room Goals campaign. Check it out here on DFS Instagram alongside other beautiful rooms from a range of designers, stylists and cool brands. It’s amazing the #livingroomgoals you can achieve with DFS when you put your mind to it! 

Giffords Circus

Giffords Big Top. Photo: Jack Ball

Giffords Circus is a was founded in 2000 by Nell and Toti Gifford and it travels between village greens in the Cotswolds and London between May and September every year. It’s one of those rare treats in life where you take the children when they are young and then end up still going but without them when they’re older. I love that it’s a slice of magic that pops up in the middle of nowhere - the big top, the performances, the decor, the caravans, the food - and then disappears again after a few days, almost overnight, as if it were never there! Proper Enid Blyton stuff (if you’re not too young to remember her!)

Circuses like Giffords also illustrate my interest in the boundaries that, traditionally, have existed between the designs of different spaces - between inside and outside spaces, between hotels and domestic interiors, between restaurants and homes. In recent years, it seems to me that the boundaries between them have come tumbling down - now restaurants are designed to make you feel like you’re eating at home and everyone wants their bedroom to look like a boutique hotel!

Artists Residence Hotel - is it a hotel, home or dining room? Hard to tell.

When it comes to outdoor living I’ve noticed that people (well, me anyway!) are drawing on festivals such as Glastonbury for inspiration. Luxury camping with all the mod cons, aka glamping, has exploded as a new holiday option and tree houses are now being built that look better than some homes! Bringing the outside in with biophillic design and the inside out with garden rooms and verandas and this is not just a trend - it’s the new way of life.

The best treehouse I’ve ever seen! Blackberry Woods, Sussex

This is all partly I think why I love Giffords Circus as it’s a great example of the joy of blurring boundaries. They mix the outside and inside to the extreme - a huge tent erected in the countryside and strewn with sawdust yet decorated with velvet drapes. A whole troupe of travelling performers who spend their summer in liveried caravans And Circus Sauce, Giffords travelling restaurant produces exquisite food in a caravan kitchen and serves it up in a magical tented restaurant. What could be more magical than capturing some circus magic in the home? The colours, passion and escapism of a circus, especially an authentic one like Giffords, are all key ingredients in a mix that make a happy and personal home where you escape from the harsh realities of life.

Circus Sauce. Image: Emma Bradshaw.

Everything about Giffords it is rooted in traditional skills and crafts.

All of the costumes are made by hand and the seamstresses travel with the circus all summer.

Costumes being made by hand. Photo: Jack Ball.

Giffords Wardrobe Department. Photo:Jack Ball

All of the sign writing - on the wagons, the caravans and the signage - is done by hand.

Giffords hand painted sign writing. Photo: Jack Ball.

The circus caravans and trailers are all built by hand using traditional carpentry skills and recycled vehicles where possible. The new accommodation wagon was a a furniture delivery lorry in a previous life!

Giffords caravan - hand built and hand painted. Photo: Jack Ball

Every year the circus has a theme and this year is ‘Xanadu’ - ‘It’s midsummer 1973 in Hyde Park and the flower power movement is at its height. Hippies, hipsters, rock stars, musicians, wild women and global nomads with shamanic horses gather to play, sing, dance, protest and perform. Policemen and a family of out-of-towners get caught up in the celebrations. Will they get in the groove?’

Xanadu poster girl Lily - star of this years show.

I popped up to the circus a few weeks ago, just before rehearsals began, for a behind - the -scenes tour and to have a play with styling up one of the caravans in a Xanadu theme!

The Big Top - styling: The Wild Girls. Photo: Jack Ball.

Photo: Jack Ball

Photo: Jack Ball

Photo: Jack Ball.

Phoro: Jack Ball

‘Xanadu’ kicks off on May 3rd at Fennells Farm in Stroud and here are the tour locations and dates.

I urge you to visit if you get the chance. It’s a feast for all of the senses and I guarantee that you’ll take some magic home to recreate in your home. And I guarantee you will be going back the following year for more!

PS there are 2 ‘Relaxed’ performances this year on Monday 13th May at 1pm, at Fennells Farm near Stroud and 1pm on Monday 12th August at Barrington. House lights will be left on, exits will be open, there will be a reduced capacity of seats, the artists will introduce themselves at the beginning of the performance and sound levels will be reduced to provide a more ‘relaxed’ environment. Circus goers will also be able to ‘chill-out’ in a separate space should they need a break.

In Praise of the White, Washed Linen Sofa

My name is Dee and I’m addicted to white, washed linen sofas’ is my confession. The epitome of French interior chic, I love how they effortlessly ooze the welcoming, lived in, ‘just left the room’ look that we all aspire to these days. They don’t even try to look good, they just do and are as comfortable and comforting as wearing your favourite jeans. They are the chic messy bun of interiors, the Levi’s cut offs of lounging and the Veja trainers of sofas - they go with anything and add effortless chic to any look.

The crumpled nature of washed linen also adds texture to a room. White schemes can sometimes look sterile and unwelcoming but the addition of texture always reverses this. There is no colour in the picture below but the crumpled linen, the vintage books and the various woods are enough.

Be still my beating heart …the perfect crumpled linen sofa. Image from Pinterest.

White sofas have the benefit too of making any space look bigger. They appear to take up less room and if you get one on legs, it will make the room look airier still. Solid sofas with no legs can tend to look bulkier and monolithic, especially in darker colours.

I have not, however, dared own a white linen sofa for the obvious reason that they will show up any and every mark and with three adolescents and a perpetually muddy dog in the house it’s an absolute recipe for disaster. Or is it? I did have a white cotton sofa in the front room for years and years until it wore out. The covers were removable and washable and, although we didn’t wash them enough (they were always covered in mud, orange juice, chocolate, red wine etc), when they WERE washed the sofa always looked like new. Even more importantly, if the stains didn’t come out then because the covers were white I was able to bleach them and you can’t do that with any other colour except for white obviously. I’d actually forgotten this important detail until recently and when I recalled it it was the light bulb moment to start the hunt for the perfect white crumpled linen sofa.

1. Maison Du Monde ‘Louvre’ Sofa

The Louvre Sofa

Maison Du Monde always seem to come up with a chic, affordable version of anything. This 2 metre long sofa is only £949 and the covers are removable and washable.

2. Merci 3 Seater Sofa

Everything Merci does makes me swoon.

Merci Paris opened ten years ago and is always a must visit for me when I’m in Paris. Merci champions emerging designers and everything they do is of exceptional quality. This sofa is not cheap at £2720 but the quality will doubtless be excellent.

Andrew Martin Truman Sofa in White Linen

The Truman sofa is one of the ultimate sofas I think - you buy it in sections so you can make it fit into any room size. It’s design and proportions are such that it will go with absolutely any look and it’s delivered in 3 to 5 days - a rarity in the sofa world where six weeks lead time is pretty standard.

4. Att Pynta Luca Sofa

Att Pynta are a new interiors brand in Peckham and the shape of their Luca sofa is to die for. It costs from £2695 and the fabric in this case is dry clean only. This blog is about white linen sofas but Att Pynta also this sofa in velvet I’ve noticed and it’s totally swoonworthy - look! All the look of the relaxed crumpled linen sofa but in velvet! Anyway, I digress….

5. Maison Du Monde Francisco Sofa

Maison Du Monde are the only brand I’ve found who are totally on it with washed linen sofas. They actually have seven styles of sofa on offer with washed linen covers, including this one called Francisco and Louvre mentioned above. Affordably priced at £973 the style and shape of this sofa make it look more expensive and the fact it’s on legs make it look more elegant and space saving, as discussed before.

So, these are the top 5 white washed linen sofas that jumped out at me. In an ideal world of course I would rather not buy new and would love to take one of my existing sofas or a second hand sofa and get re-covered in crumpled white linen. This service, sadly, seems rare and the recovering services I did find did not offer white linen as an option. I plan to explore this subject soon for a whole blog post of it’s own and perhaps I should learn to sew my own!

Note: Linen should be washed in lukewarm or cold water to avoid shrinkage.

Woodchip & Magnolia X Pearl Lowe

A couple of years ago, when Lisa Dawson and I were launching our ‘No Rules Interior Cool’ workshops, we were looking for a few cool, quirky interior brands to sponsor our goody bags. One of those brands was Woodchip and Magnolia, a wallpaper and textile company founded by uber talented and experienced designer Nina Marika Tarnowsk. We instantly loved Woodchip and Magnolia’s vibe and their mantra ‘we like to do things differently. We don’t follow trends or have a signature style. We do what we want when we feel like it, together with creatives who share the same passion and ethos'. it resonated hugely with us and our belief that there are no rules with interior design either.

We are also longtime admirers of Pearl Lowe who - although she needs no introduction - is a one time pop singer, a fashion designer and an interior designer with an effortless signature style that encompasses all things vintage and chic faded glamour. Her clothes and interiors and instantly recognisable and her kitchen is one of the most liked on Instagram.

So, imagine our delight when we learned that Pearl had designed a range of wallpapers and textiles for Woodchip and Magnolia - definitely a meeting of like minded creatives - and that they were launching the wallpapers at London Design Fair.

Moi, Pearl Lowe, Lisa Dawson at Truman Brewery.

We met Pearl at London Design Fair for a good old chinwag about all things interiors and discuss Pearl’s excitement at launching her own textile range. ‘I’ve been designing these prints in my head for years, drawing on the many influences in my life. It’s really a dream come true for me!’ We also couldn’t help but meander into other topics - she was so easy to talk to about anything. We talked about how you often only work out how your career path has evolved by joining the dots backwards and about the difficulties of balancing an often unpredictable career in a creative world with the equally unpredictable demands of motherhood - and loads more! We recorded the chat as a podcast here. if you fancy a listen.

The wallpapers and textiles are all absolutely gorgeous and unmistakeably ‘Pearl’ in style. They reflect her lifelong passion for vintage, faded glamour and country house opulance, a;ll mixed in with a splash of rock ‘n’ roll.. The designs are an eclectic mix of vintage inspired florals and geometric prints and come in a variety of colourways. So inspiring and beautiful and make me want to redecorate my house immediately!

Va Va Frome

Va Va Frome - a modern take on lushness of palms and ferns.

Wisteria

Wisteria - Pearl couldn’t find a wisteria wallpaper to buy so she designed her own!

Dawn Chorus

Dawn Chorus - the design was based on some old vintage fabric stored in an old suitcase.

Ditsy

Ditsy - very feminine and similar to Pearl’s dress designs

To read more about Pearls wallpapers and textiles, and order samples, click on the Woodchip and Magnolia website. To check out Pearl’s designs in beautiful velvet fabrics click here.

It was great to meet Pearl - her collaboration with Woodchip and Magnolia really is the perfect match and I can’t wait to see what else they come up with!

The Homeplace Holiday Let - Ramsgate

One of the first people I got to know via Instagram (when I started posting regularly about three years ago) was Wendy Aldridge from Homeplace. Homeplace sells a beautifully edited mix of contemporary and vintage homeware and Wendy’s taste in interior styling, especially mid-century, is impeccable. As well as the shop, Wendy also has an apartment in Ramsgate that she lets out for holidays. The apartment ‘The Homeplace Holiday Let’ has been decorated throughout using Wendy’s eye for design and examples of many of the items that she stocks in her shop.

I was lucky enough to host a ‘No Rules Interior Cool’ workshop there with Lisa Dawson back in the Spring and instantly fell in love with the apartment and Ramsgate. In fact, all of us on the workshop fell in love with the apartment so much that when Wendy mentioned that she’d had a cancellation for Easter, I snapped it up for my family’s Easter holiday.

The apartment is a basement flat of Victoria Mansions, a huge Victorian villa on the promenade in Ramsgate, The view from the front door is of the sea front and a quick trot across the road and you’re on the beach.

The apartment itself is huge and sleeps 6 across 3 double rooms.

Huge Front Room - we held a workshop for 20 in here!

The front room and kitchen are knocked through to provide maximum light from the front bay windows and large sash windows at the back. Wendy has cleverly joined the colour scheme together by using the main colour from the front room - Farrow and Ball ‘Downpipe’ - as the accent colour in the kitchen on the window frames, door frames and skirting boards. Wendy has also made the most of the remaining original features in the apartment - the floorboards and the windows - by making them focal points in the room.

The kitchen is large and airy and big enough to house a dining table for 8. The kitchen was made from the existing carcass, updated with new doors and a stainless steel workshop. There’s a dash of 80s geometry in here too with the grid patterned square tiles and stainless steel hood but, as ever, Wendy blends this effortlessly with the Victorian architecture and mid century furniture.

One of the two beautiful Homeplace Holiday Let bathrooms - this got over 6000 likes on Instagram when I posted it.

This is the main bedroom at the back of the apartment - all of the furniture, accessories and art is a mixture of new and vintage and all is sourced by Wendy herself. I especially love how she gives a nod to the apartment’s seaside location using quirkier than usual motifs - the vintage toy yacht here is an example, along with the seagull taxidermy in the kitchen!

Ramsgate itself is up and coming and, if I were to consider a job move to London, I think I’d seriously consider living here and commuting the hour to London. Ramsgate is awash with huge Victorian villas, some beautiful, some tired and in need of refurbishment, (LOADS of doer-uppers) but all still intact and authentic. We especially loved the houses built into the cliff, the cinema, the beach, the harbour and the flea markets.

My family and i also fell for Margate with it’s cool restaurants, Turner Contemporay gallery, flea markets, boutiques, the newly restored Dreamland amusement park and our absolute favourite - The Shell Grotto.

We also checked out Broadstairs and Whitstable - both well worth at least a day trip each with their beautiful beaches, cool architecture and quirky boutiques. And oysters of course!

We absolutely loved our trip to the this corner of Kent and the Homeplace Holiday Let in Ramsgate and we’d definitely go back to explore it all more deeply. For more info and to book the Ramsgate apartment click here.

Wendy now has a second holiday let in Porto which she’s decorated beautifully and I can’t wait to visit - For more info and to book the Porto apartment click here.

Christmas Decorating with Sainsbury's Home.

Do you use the same Christmas decorations, year in year out, or do you like to upgrade every Christmas? If you’re anything like me then you’ll like the best of both worlds - to keep all of your old favourites and then add a few new pieces each year.

This Christmas, Sainsbury’s Home have come up with three exciting new ranges - Winter’s Mist, Santa’s Town & Very Merry and Woodland Christmas - so you’re bound to find something that will fit right in with your existing favourites.

Winter’s Mist

The Winters Mist range is all about whites and silvers. It’s a paired back, fresh and natural look with hints of green. It’s a timeless look but it never dates or looks old fashioned and, as it’s so natural and simple, it’s easy to mix and match pieces of Winters Mist with other looks.

My favourites from the Winters Mist range are the Star Candles. I absolutely love the silvered glass container which both reflects the candle light and allows the glow of the candle to show through - the best of both worlds and perfect for creating a grown up sparkle on your Christmas table. The star shape too is an absolute classic and will add interest to any existing glass or star shaped decorations you already have.

A also particularly love the faux eucalyptus garland and wreath which are a great way of decorating your table or draping around the house. It goes with the Winter’s Mist look but can be used to add greenery to any Christmas look. The benefit of faux of course is that it last all Christmas without wilting, as real foliage would, and you can use it year after year.

No Christmas is complete without christmas crackers of course and these silver and white dinner crackers will complete the Winters Mist look perfectly.

Santa’s Town and Very Merry
The Santa’s Town and Very Merry range is great fun and perfect for adding to your collection if you have children or are a dog lover. The colours are a bright and playful take on the traditional Christmas colours of red, green and white with a splash of turquoise.

The decorations can be used to hang on your Christmas tree of course or you could put a twist on tradition by using them as napkin rings,

To add to your Santa’s Town & Very Merry look you could use traditional candles or you could use these gorgeous and fun light up cloches which are obviously safer than candles.

I’ve used Bingo Christmas Crackers to style my grown up Very Merry look or you could use these Selfie Game Crackers if you’re entertaining children instead.

Woodland Christmas

The Woodland Christmas range is all about my favourite Christmas look - a rustic, foraged Christmas. There are lots of use of different wooden textures, dried and woody foliage and greenery. It’s the easiest Christmas look to achieve as lots of the accessories can be obtained simply by foraging in your local park or woods. Colours are muted greens, browns and rusts and it’s a very soothing, grown up look.

To help you to achieve this look use rustic accessories such as the Sainsbury’s Home mini Christmas tree, Woodland wreath and Woodland baubles.

Complete your look candles in your Christmas wreath with these tartan Christmas crackers.

So whatever your taste, Sainsbury’s Home has Christmas accessories to suit or to add to your existing collection.

Christmas Decorating Trends with Barbour

One of our favourite Christmas traditions is the annual watching of Raymond Briggs The Snowman. The book is 40 years old this year, I have been watching the animation of it every year from childhood and now I continue to watch it with my parents and my own children.

This Christmas, Barbour – glorious British outerwear brand and veritable institution of rural life, - have partnered again with The Snowman and created a campaign with a twist on the original story. 

I was inspired by this partnership to look outside to rural life this Christmas season and bring some of the outdoors indoors. Natural colours, such as greens, rusts and taupes, and wooden textures have been a huge trend recently, along with plants and botanicals, It’s been all about bringing the outside inside and making the home feel at one with nature.

Foraging for Decorations.

There’s nothing I like more than gathering ivy, logs, pine cones, berried branches and leafy twigs on a long walk in the countryside and then decorating my home with the foraged foliage. Another beauty of this trend of course is that most of it costs very little - or even nothing - as long as you know where to look - and remember take a set of secateurs with you!

Foraged foliage wreath.

Foraged wreath by The Wildgirls.

Pine Cone Wall Hanging

Christmas Florals

Another popular trend that is also in keeping with the ‘outside inside’ theme is the move towards using flowers all year round. Florals have been big news in fashion in recent years and this, together with the improved quality of faux and dried flowers, has meant that flowers are not just a summer theme any more. Bedecking a Christmas tree with faux flowers and using floral embellishments for wrapping is a growing trend and a refreshing change from baubles and tinsel.

Floral Christmas Tree

Dried Flower Wrapping Embellishments

Tartan Christmas Table.

Tartan, of course, is a Christmas trend that will never go out of fashion. It’s timeless and traditional and also lends itself well to the ‘outside inside’ theme. Foliage, berries and greenery always look very handsome and majestic when styled with tartan. Use tartan as bows in your tree, ribbon for your wrapped Christmas gifts or as a tablecloth for your Christmas dinner table.



Whichever theme or trend you decide on for styling your Christmas, it’s always more fun to create it with family and friends and make it part of your family tradition, just like watching The Snowman with your family every year.

This is blog post is part of a paid partnership with Barbour. As always, all views are my own.